After getting almost no reading for pleasure done in July, I am pleased to be getting some vacation reading in! . . FINNA I read entirely the first day in the car. It was impossible to put it down. Queer anti-capitalist multiverse portal fantasy with lots of critique, both pointed and satirical of retail chains — from branding and store layouts to how they treat their workers. But it’s also about mental illness and the coping mechanisms people use to navigate the world, and how what is dysfunctional in one situation could be perfectly adapted to another. Also about relationships and letting go. BUT ALSO about weird alien shit and submarine adventures and finding your place in a universe of possibility. . . HOW TO BUILD AND ANDROID was more mixed. I’m into Philip K. Dick, I am interested in artificial intelligence and robotics, and this book delivered lots of repeatable factoids in those arenas, BUT it kept rubbing me the wrong way. I understand that this is a book of non-fiction and that the major players in this story were all cis white men, BUT even when women did show up, they way they were written about left a bad taste in my mouth. And they didn’t show up often. A series of Hanson’s ex-girlfriends, mostly unnamed, who serve as models for Hanson’s early robotic heads. Olney’s wife, who is mentioned mostly in context of being annoyed when he isn’t home for dinner. Mathew’s girlfriend, who does at least get a name (Sarah Petschonek), but is only described as his girlfriend, DESPITE THE FACT that she also works in the same building, so undoubtedly has SOME area of expertise or life of her own, even if it isn’t robotics. AND THEN there is the conversational “AI” program the author mentions writing on class, who is gendered female and whose entire “personality” is making computer-pun come-ons? It got EXHAUSTING. I wanted to like this more, but it was just okay. . . How is your summer reading going? . . #finna #ninocipri #tornovella #howtobuildanandroid #daviddufty #scifi #sciencefiction #science https://www.instagram.com/p/CDemVBDgVMl/?igshid=1q6j7ddbgmh0c
